Card registry systems and methods

ABSTRACT

A card registry system is configured to automatically identify financial card information in one or more credit files associated with a consumer and populate a card registry account of the consumer with the identified financial card information. Once the financial card information has been obtained from the credit file(s), the card registry system may transmit cancellation and/or reissuance requests to the respective card issuers in the instance that one or more cards are compromised, so that the financial cards may be easily and efficiently cancelled and/or reissued at the request of the consumer.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of, and claims priority from, U.S.application Ser. No. 15/654,639, filed Jul. 19, 2017, which is acontinuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 15/393,110, filed Dec. 28,2016, issued as U.S. Pat. No. 9,767,513, which is a continuation of, andclaims priority from, U.S. application Ser. No. 14/987,463, filed Jan.4, 2016, issued as U.S. Pat. No. 9,542,682, which is a continuation of,and claims priority from, U.S. application Ser. No. 13/919,898, filedJun. 17, 2013, issued as U.S. Pat. No. 9,230,283, which is acontinuation of, and claims priority from, U.S. application Ser. No.13/411,914, filed Mar. 5, 2012, issued as U.S. Pat. No. 8,464,939, whichis a continuation of, and claims priority from, U.S. application Ser.No. 12/334,278, filed Dec. 12, 2008, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,127,986, whichclaims priority from U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/013,877, filedDec. 14, 2007. The entire contents of each of the above referencedapplications are hereby expressly incorporated herein by reference intheir entireties.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention

This invention relates to systems and methods for automating registry ofconsumer credit cards (and other financial cards) in a card registryservice.

Description of the Related Art

Card registry services provide consumers with a repository forinformation associated with each of a plurality of credit cards that maybe accessed when one or more of the credit cards are lost, stolen, orotherwise unavailable, and the consumer wishes to cancel the creditcard(s). For example, a consumer may provide information regarding eachof their credit cards, including, for example, a card issuer, cardnumber, full name on card, security code on card, and contactinformation for the card issuer to a card registry service. When theconsumer wants to cancel one or more of the registered credit cards, theconsumer retrieves the card information from the card registry servicesand cancels the cards using that information or a customer servicerepresentative of the card registry service may help consumer review theregistered cards and initiate cancellation of the cards.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In one embodiment, a card registry service provides a card registrycomputing system (also referred to herein as a “card registry system”)for storing information regarding one or more credit cards for each of aplurality of consumers and, when a consumer contacts the credit cardregistry service, either by phone, fax, or via an Internet-accessibleuser interface, for example, the credit cards associated with theparticular consumer are determined and the credit card accounts arecancelled electronically by the card registry system or by a fraudprevention representative. In one embodiment, the card registry systemis configured to automatically populate a consumer's card registryaccount with credit card account information retrieved from theconsumer's credit file.

In general, a card registry system receives information regarding one ormore financial cards, which may include credit, debit, retail storeloyalty, ATM, and any other available financial cards, of the consumerso that the card information is available when one or more of theregistered cards becomes unavailable (e.g., one or more cards may belost, stolen, or otherwise compromised). In one embodiment, the consumerprovides relevant information regarding the financial cards to beregistered with the credit registry service into one or more webinterfaces or forms, such as via a keyboard, mouse, and/or microphone,for example. This process can be quite tedious and prone totypographical errors or errors in communication card information,however, especially as the number of cards associated with the consumerincreases. Additionally, if a consumer has lost a purse or wallet, thetime required to compile and enter the information necessary to registereach of the consumer's financial cards may increase the risk offraudulent use of the financial cards. Accordingly, in an advantageousembodiment, a card registry system is configured to automaticallyidentify financial card information in one or more credit filesassociated with the consumer and populate the consumer's card registryaccount with the identified financial card information. For example, ifthe consumer is enrolled in a credit monitoring service thatperiodically accesses the consumer's credit file from one or more creditbureaus, information regarding open credit card accounts of the consumermay be extracted from a credit file of the consumer.

In one embodiment, a credit file of the consumer is accessed when theconsumer initially enrolls in the card registry service, which may bewell before cancellation of any of the registered cards is necessary. Inanother embodiment, the consumer's enrollment in the card registryservice does not immediately initiate retrieval of credit cardinformation from the consumer's credit file. Rather, the card registryservice accesses the consumer's credit file when cancellation of cardsis initiated by the consumer, such as in response to the consumer losingone or more financial cards. Because the financial card information iselectronically accessed from the member's credit file(s), the integrityof the accessed data is increased when compared to manual entry methodsthat commonly result in typographical and/or communication errors,especially when entering lengthy numeric strings.

In one embodiment, information regarding financial cards that are notlisted on a credit file, e.g., debit and/or ATM card, is provided by theconsumer via a web interface of the card registry system, for example.In other embodiments, however, information regarding debit and/or ATMcards may be automatically retrieved from services provided by the cardregistry service and/or affiliates of the card registry service, such asa debit account monitoring service, for example. In one embodiment,debit and/or ATM card information identified in one or more debitreports associated with the consumer is stored in the consumer's cardregistry account. In other embodiments, other data sources may beaccesses in order to automate registration of financial cards with aconsumer's card registry account.

In one embodiment, consumers that subscribe to other credit-relatedservices offered by the card registry service provider and/or affiliatesof the provider, such as credit monitoring services or other credit ornon-credit related services, may easily register with the card registrysystem with a single click on a webpage of the related service provider.For example, a member of a single or multi-bureau credit monitoringservice may easily enroll in the card registry system with a singleclick on an enrollment button, for example, on the member's accountinformation (or other) page. In another example, a member of anon-credit related product, such as a warranty product, may likewiseeasily enroll in the card registry system. Thus, in this embodiment, theprocess of enrolling a consumer in a credit registry service issimplified by using the consumer's member information that haspreviously been supplied by the consumer in opening the related creditmonitoring account.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1A is a block diagram illustrating one embodiment of a cardregistry system in communication with a credit bureau, a consumer, andone or more financial card issuers.

FIG. 1B is a block diagram illustrating another embodiment of a cardregistry system in communication with a credit bureau, a consumer, andone or more financial card issuers, where an exemplary temporal flow ofdata is outlined.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating one embodiment of a card registrysystem.

FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary user interface that may be used by aconsumer to log in to the consumer's card registry account, and/or otherfinancial service account offered by the card registry provider.

FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary user interface for a credit monitoringservice in which a consumer may enroll.

FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplary user interface that may be displayed tothe consumer in response to the consumer indicating a desire to viewand/or cancel one or more financial cards.

FIG. 6 illustrates an exemplary user interface that lists the financialcards associated with a particular consumer's card registry account.

FIG. 7 illustrates an exemplary user interface that lists the financialcards associated with a particular consumer's card registry account, andprovides controls that allow the consumer to select one or more of thefinancial cards for cancellation and possible reissuance.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating one embodiment of a method ofcanceling financial cards of a consumer.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating another embodiment of a method ofcanceling financial cards of a consumer.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Embodiments of the invention will now be described with reference to theaccompanying figures, wherein like numerals refer to like elementsthroughout. The terminology used in the description presented herein isnot intended to be interpreted in any limited or restrictive manner,simply because it is being utilized in conjunction with a detaileddescription of certain specific embodiments of the invention.Furthermore, embodiments of the invention may include several novelfeatures, no single one of which is solely responsible for its desirableattributes or which is essential to practicing the inventions hereindescribed.

FIGS. 1A is a block diagram illustrating one embodiment of a cardregistry system 150 in communication with a credit bureau 120, aconsumer 130, and one or more financial card issuers 140 (including cardissuer 140A, card issuer 140B, card issuer 140C, and card issuer 140N).In one embodiment, the system outlined in FIG. 1A is computerized,wherein each of the illustrated components comprises a computing devicethat is configured to communicate with other computer devices via anetwork 160. For example, the consumer 130 may comprise a computingdevice, such as a desktop, notebook, or handheld computing device thatis configured to transmit and receive data to/from other computingdevices via the network 160. Similarly, each of the card issuers 140,the credit bureau 120, and the card registry system 150, may include oneor more computing devices that are configured to communicate data withother computing devices via the network 160. Depending on embodiment,the network 160 may comprise one or more of any type of network, such asone or more local area networks, wide area networks, personal areanetworks, telephone network, and/or the Internet, which may be accessedvia any available wired and/or wireless communication protocols. Thus,the network 160 of FIG. 1A may comprise a secure LAN through which thecard registry system 150 and the credit bureau 120 communicate, and thenetwork 160 may further comprise an Internet connection through whichthe card registry system 150 and the consumer 130 communicate. Inanother embodiment the network 160 comprises one or more telephonenetworks, whether wireless or wired, that carries voice communicationsbetween the consumer 130 and a representative of the card registrysystem 150, for example. Any other combination of networks, includingsecured and unsecured network communication links, are contemplated foruse in the systems described herein.

FIG. 1B is a block diagram illustrating another embodiment of the cardregistry system 150, the credit bureau 120, the consumer 130, and thefinancial card issuers 140 of FIG. 1A, where an exemplary temporal flowof data is outlined. In particular, the circled numerals of FIG. 1Billustrate the order in which data flows between the various componentsof FIG. 1B according to one embodiment. In other embodiments, the stepsoutlined by the circled numerals may be performed in a different order,and the method may include fewer or additional steps.

In step one of FIG. 1B, the card registry system 150 receivesinformation from the consumer 130 that allows the card registry system150 to access a credit file of the consumer 130. For example, the cardregistry system 150 may receive information from the consumer 130 thatis provided to the card registry system 150 as part of an enrollmentprocess in a credit monitoring service. In this embodiment, the cardregistry system 150 may be controlled by a credit monitoring service andthe card registry account may be linked to a credit monitoring accountof the consumer 130. Alternatively, in another embodiment in theconsumer 130 may establish a card registry account with the cardregistry system 150 without previously having established a creditmonitoring account with the card registry system 150. For example, theconsumer 130 may establish a card registry account with the cardregistry system 150 in response to the consumer 130 needing to urgentlycancel one or more financial cards, such as may be desired if theconsumer 130 loses a purse or wallet that holds the financial cards. Inother embodiments, the card registry system 150 may be controlled and/orincorporated into other services provided by a credit bureau or anyother entity. Depending on the embodiment, the consumer may pay either amonthly or annual membership fee for their enrollment in the creditregistry service and the membership fee may be billed immediately uponthe enrollment, or may be billed periodically. In one embodiment, thecard registry service provides a reimbursement guarantee indicating thata registered member will be reimbursed certain or all unauthorizedcharges that are not covered by the respective card issuers. Such aguarantee may only apply to members that enrolled in the card registryservice some predetermined time period (e.g., a day, a month, or sixmonths) prior to needing to use the cancellation/reissuance service.Thus, such a guarantee may motivate consumers to enroll in the cardregistry service well before they need the cancellation/reissuanceservice, if ever.

Moving to step two of FIG. 1B, in response to the consumer 130indicating that one or more financial cards of the consumer 130 shouldbe canceled, the card registry system 150 accesses a credit file of theconsumer 130 from any one or all of the credit bureaus 120. The creditfile may comprise a credit file from a single credit bureau or a creditfile comprising credit data from more than one credit bureau, such as atri-bureau report. The card registry system 150 may then analyze thecredit file and extract credit card account information from theretrieve credit file. In an embodiment where the consumer 130 is alreadyenrolled in a credit monitoring service prior to requesting cancellationof one or more financial cards, the card registry system 150 may accessa pre-retrieved copy of the consumer credit file, rather than requestinga current copy of the credit file from the credit bureau 120.Furthermore, if the consumer is enrolled in a credit monitoring service,the card registry system 150 may analyze previous credit files of theconsumer, in addition to a current credit file, in an attempt toidentify as many of the consumer's credit cards as possible. Afterextracting the credit card information from the credit file, the cardregistry system 150 may initiate cancellation of one or more of theidentified credit cards. A “credit file,” as used herein, includes anydata that is stored by a credit bureau, including any information thatis included in a consumer credit report, any subset of that information,and/or any other credit data.

Next, in step three the consumer 130 is given the opportunity to addfinancial cards to the consumer's card registry account that may nothave been identified in the consumer's credit file. For example, theconsumer may have debit cards, ATM cards, retail store loyalty cards,and/or other financial cards that are not included in a credit file.Thus, the consumer 130 may desire to include these other financial cardsin their card registry account so that the financial cards may also becanceled and reissued by the card registry system 150. In oneembodiment, the card registry system 150 communicates with devices otherthan the credit bureau 120 in order to identify financial cardsassociated with the consumer 130. For example, the card registry system150 may communicate with a debit reporting service in order to receiveinformation regarding debit accounts associated with the consumer 130.In step three, the consumer 130 is also given the opportunity to selectone or more of the identified financial cards for cancellation andpossibly reissuance. In another embodiment, all of the financial cardsare selected for cancellation as a default and the consumer 130 is giventhe opportunity to unselect any of the financial cards (maybe not all ofthe financial cards were in a lost purse that is the catalyst forinitiating cancellation of cards). In another embodiment, the consumermay establish groups of financial cards, such as cards that are used bythe consumer, those that are only used by a spouse of the consumer,etc., so that one or more groups of financial cards may be selected orunselected for cancellation or reissuance.

In step four of FIG. 1B, the card registry system initiates cancellationof the selected financial cards of the consumer 130. If the consumer hasrequested cancellation of financial cards from multiple issuers, thecard registry system 150 initiates communications with each of thosecard issuers 140 in order to expedite cancellation of the indicatedfinancial cards. In one embodiment, the cancellation process isautomated by the card registry system 150. For example, the cardregistry system 150 may have established relationships with each of thecard issuers 140 such that an electronic cancellation request may betransmitted from the card registry system 150 to a particular cardissuer 140 in order to initiate cancellation of one or more of financialcards of the consumer 130 that are held by that card issuer 140. Inanother embodiment, a fraud resolution or customer servicerepresentative with access to the card registry system 150 manuallycontacts each of the card issuers 140 associated with the financialcards selected for cancellation by the consumer 130. For example, thecustomer service representative may contact a card issuer 140 viatelephone, fax, e-mail, or other means, in order to communicate acancellation requests on behalf of the consumer 130 to the relevant cardissuer 140. In one embodiment, cancellation of certain financial cardsmay be initiated electronically via direct communication between thecard registry system 150 and the associated card issuer 140, while otherfinancial cards of the consumer 130 may be canceled by phone, fax,email, or other communication between the customer servicerepresentative and a representative at the associated card issuer 140.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating one embodiment of the cardregistry system 150. In one embodiment, the card registry system 150 isconfigured to interface with multiple devices and/or data sources, suchas in the exemplary network configurations of FIGS. 1A and 1B. The cardregistry system 150 may be used to implement certain systems and methodsdescribed herein. For example, in one embodiment the card registrysystem 150 may be configured to access credit files of consumers,identify credit card accounts (and/or other financial cards) included inthe credit files, and initiate cancellation and reissuance of theidentified credit card accounts based on the information regarding thecredit card accounts that is located in the credit file. Thefunctionality provided for in the components and modules of the cardregistry system 150 may be combined into fewer components and modules orfurther separated into additional components and modules.

In general, the word module, as used herein, refers to logic embodied inhardware or firmware, or to a collection of software instructions,possibly having entry and exit points, written in a programminglanguage, such as, for example, C, C++, or C#. A software module may becompiled and linked into an executable program, installed in a dynamiclink library, or may be written in an interpreted programming languagesuch as, for example, BASIC, C++, JavaScript, Perl, or Python. It willbe appreciated that software modules may be callable from other modulesor from themselves, and/or may be invoked in response to detected eventsor interrupts. Software instructions may be embedded in firmware, suchas an EPROM. It will be further appreciated that hardware modules may becomprised of connected logic units, such as gates and flip-flops, and/ormay be comprised of programmable units, such as programmable gate arraysor processors. The modules described herein are preferably implementedas software modules, but may be represented in hardware or firmware.Generally, the modules described herein refer to logical modules thatmay be combined with other modules or divided into sub-modules despitetheir physical organization or storage.

In one embodiment, the card registry system 150 includes, for example, aserver or a personal computer that is IBM, Macintosh, or Linux/Unixcompatible. In another embodiment, the card registry system 150comprises a laptop computer, smart phone, personal digital assistant, orother computing device, for example. In one embodiment, the exemplarycard registry system 150 includes a central processing unit (“CPU”) 205,which may include one or more conventional or proprietarymicroprocessors. The card registry system 150 further includes a memory,such as random access memory (“RAM”) for temporary storage ofinformation and a read only memory (“ROM”) for permanent storage ofinformation, and a mass storage device 220, such as a hard drive,diskette, or optical media storage device. In certain embodiments, themass storage device 220 stores card registry account information, suchas financials card information associated with financial cards ofrespective consumers. In one embodiment, the financial card informationincludes information regarding a card issuer that may be used toinitiate cancellation of the respective financial card, among otherinformation that uniquely identifies a particular financial card. In oneembodiment, the card issuer information is retrieved from a credit fileof the consumer so that the consumer is not required to manually providethe card issuer information. Typically, the modules of the card registrysystem 150 are in communication with one another via a standards basedbus system. In different embodiments, the standards based bus systemcould be Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI), Microchannel, SCSI,Industrial Standard Architecture (ISA) and Extended ISA (EISA)architectures, for example.

The card registry system 150 is generally controlled and coordinated byoperating system and/or server software, such as the Windows 95, 98, NT,2000, XP, Vista, Linux, SunOS, Solaris, PalmOS, Blackberry OS, or othercompatible operating systems. In Macintosh systems, the operating systemmay be any available operating system, such as MAC OS X. In otherembodiments, the card registry system 150 may be controlled by aproprietary operating system. Conventional operating systems control andschedule computer processes for execution, perform memory management,provide file system, networking, and I/O services, and provide a userinterface, such as a graphical user interface (“GUI”), among otherthings.

The exemplary card registry system 150 may include one or more commonlyavailable input/output (I/O) interfaces and devices 210, such as akeyboard, mouse, touchpad, and printer. In one embodiment, the I/Odevices and interfaces 210 include one or more display device, such as amonitor, that allows the visual presentation of data to a user. Moreparticularly, a display device provides for the presentation of GUIs,application software data, and multimedia presentations, for example.The card registry system 150 may also include one or more multimediadevices 240, such as speakers, video cards, graphics accelerators, andmicrophones, for example. In one embodiment, the I/O interfaces anddevices 210 comprise devices that are in communication with modules ofthe card registry system 150 via a network, such as the network 160and/or any secured local area network, for example.

In the embodiment of FIG. 2, the I/O devices and interfaces 210 providea communication interface to various external devices. For example, inthis embodiment the card registry system 150 is in communication with anetwork 160, such as any combination of one or more LANs, WANs, or theInternet, for example, via a wired, wireless, or combination of wiredand wireless, connections via a network interface of the I/O devices andinterfaces 210.

In the embodiment of FIG. 2, the card registry system 150 also includestwo application modules that may be executed by the CPU 105. Moreparticularly, the application modules include an account detectionmodule 250 and an account cancellation/reissuance module 260. In oneembodiment, the account detection module 250 is configured to access acredit file of the consumer 130 and to identify credit card accountinformation within the credit file. For example, the consumer may haveseveral different credit cards from different issuers. A credit file ofthe consumer 130 should include information on each of these issuedcredit cards. Thus, the account detection module, using document parsingtechnology, may scan the credit files (or only the relevant portions ofthe credit file or other credit information) for information associatedwith open credit card accounts. In one embodiment, the account detectionmodule 250 identifies only the open credit card accounts, as a creditfile may indicate credit card accounts that are closed and would notrequire cancellation. In a similar way, the account detection module mayaccess other records associated with the consumer 130 in order toidentify debit, retail loyalty, or other financial cards associated withthe consumer 130. In one embodiment, the account detection module 250also communicates with a card issuer information source that containsinformation necessary for cancellation of financial cards that may notbe included on a credit file. For example, a card issuer informationsource may comprise a database that provides detailed informationregarding contacts and/or requirements for canceling respective creditcards. In one embodiment, the contact information in the card issuerinformation source may comprise a secure FTP address, IP address, emailaddress, or any other electronic communication address that may be usedby the card registry system 150 in requesting cancellation of a creditcard. Thus, the account detection module 250 may be configured toidentify credit cards associate with the consumer 130, and theinformation necessary to initiate cancellation of the credit cards, withlittle or minimal input from the consumer 130.

The account cancellation/reissuance module 260 is configured tocommunicate with one or more card issuers 140 in order to initiatecancellation of financial cards that are issued by respective cardissuers 140. As noted above, the account cancellation/reissuance module260 may communicate electronically with some or all of the card issuers140 in order to communicate a cancellation request to the respectivecard issuers 140. In another embodiment, the accountcancellation/reissuance module 260 may provide information that isusable by a customer service representative in order to initiatecancellation of financial cards, such as by telephone or fax. In oneembodiment, the account cancellation/reissuance module 260 alsoinitiates reissuance of financial cards from card issuers 140. If theconsumer 130 loses a purse or wallet, for example, that containsmultiple financial cards the consumer may not only wish to cancel all ofthe lost financial cards, but may also be interested in immediatelyreissuing each (or some) of the financial cards, such as with newaccount numbers. Thus, the account cancellation/reissuance module 260may be configured to request both cancellation and reissuance offinancial cards from the card issuers 140.

FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary user interface 300 that may be used by aconsumer to log into the consumer's card registry account, and/or otherfinancial service account offered by the card registry provider. Inembodiment of FIG. 3, the user interface 300 comprises a username entryfield 310 and a password entry field 320, as well as a login button 330.In this embodiment, the consumer enters their chosen (or assigned)username in the text entry field 310 and the associated password in thepassword entry field 320, followed by selecting the login button 330, inorder to initiate access to the consumer's account. In one embodiment,the user interface 300 allows the consumer access to a credit monitoringservice, which may include a card registry service such as thatdescribed above with reference to FIGS. 1-2. In other embodiments, auser interface similar to that of FIG. 3 may be used to provide theconsumer direct access to a card registry service, without the consumerhaving previously enrolled in a credit monitoring service. In otherembodiments, the consumer may access the card registry service using anyother suitable user interface, or by other means such as via telephone,fax, or mail.

FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary user interface for a credit monitoringservice in which a consumer may enroll. For example, the user interface400 may be part of an account summary page that is displayed to theconsumer 130 after logging into their credit monitoring account. Inother embodiments, the account summary page of a consumer's creditmonitoring account may include additional or less information than theuser interface of FIG. 4.

The exemplary user interface 400 includes a section summarizing theconsumer's credit profile 410, a section summarizing the consumer's debtprofile 420, and a section providing a credit score and credit scoretracking for the consumer 430. Additionally, the user interface 400includes links to other portions of the credit monitoring service,including a credit center tab 440, a child identity monitor tab 442, abenefits tab 444, and a view/cancel accounts tab 446. In otherembodiments, a credit monitoring service may provide additional or feweroptions to a consumer. In the particular embodiment of FIG. 4, theconsumer may initiate the process of viewing and/or canceling financialcards by selecting the tab 446. In one embodiment, after selecting thetab 446, the card registry system 150 identifies financial cardsassociated with the consumer, allows the consumer to edit the identifiedcards and/or enter information regarding additional financial cards, andinitiates cancellation and possibly reissuance of one or more of thefinancial cards.

FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplary user interface that may be displayed tothe consumer in response to the consumer indicating a desire to viewand/or cancel one or more financial cards. For example, if the consumerviewing the user interface 400 of FIG. 4 selects the view/cancelaccounts tab 446, a user interface such as that the illustrated in FIG.5 may be displayed to the consumer indicating that the card registrysystem 150, and more particularly, the account detection module 250(FIG. 2), is analyzing the consumers credit file in order to identifycredit card accounts that are listed there on. In one embodiment, theidentification of credit card accounts in the consumer's credit file isperformed in response to the consumer indicating a desire to view and/orcancel financial cards, such as by selecting the tab 446 of FIG. 4. Inother embodiments, the card registry system 150 may identify credit cardaccounts in the credit file, or credit files, of the consumer on anongoing basis, such as in response to receiving a periodic credit filefrom the credit bureau 120 as part of a credit monitoring service inwhich the consumer has enrolled.

FIG. 6 illustrates an exemplary user interface 600 that lists thefinancial cards associated with an exemplary consumer card registryaccount. The user interface 600 indicates credit card accounts 610 thathave been identified in the consumer's credit file, as well as a storeloyalty card 620 that may have been added to the consumers card registryaccount by the consumer. In addition to the information illustrated inFIG. 6 regarding each of the identified credit card accounts 610, thecard registry system may also store information regarding details ofcommunicating with respective card issuers in order to cancel andreissue the indicated credit cards. In the embodiment of FIG. 6, theuser interface 600 includes an add account row 630 comprising text entryfields that allow the consumer to add additional financial cards totheir card registry account. In this embodiment, the consumer simplyclicks on one of the fields in the add account row 630 and then providesthe requested information regarding the financial card. After the userhas entered information regarding a new card in add account row 630, theconsumer initiates storage of the new account information in theconsumer's card registry account by selecting the submit update button640. In other embodiments, other user interfaces may be used to receiveinformation regarding financial cards that a consumer wishes to add to acard registry account.

The user-interface 600 also includes a cancel card(s) button 650 thatmay be selected to initiate cancellation and possibly reissuance (if theconsumer desires reissuance) of one or more of the listed financialcards. In one embodiment, the cancel cards button 650, when selected,may initiate cancellation of all of the cards in the consumers cardregistry account. In another embodiment, selection of the cancel cardsbutton 650 provides the consumer with another user interface (e.g., FIG.7) that allows the consumer to select specific financial cards forcancellation and reissuance.

FIG. 7 illustrates an exemplary user interface 700 that lists thefinancial cards associated with a particular consumer card registryaccount, and provides controls that allow the consumer to select one ormore of the financial cards for cancellation and possible reissuance. Inthe embodiment of FIG. 7, in addition to listing the same informationregarding the financial cards as on the user interface 600 (FIG. 6), theuser interface 700 also includes a cancel card column 710 and a reissuecard column 720, each of the columns comprising selectable controls(e.g., checkboxes) that are selectable by the consumer in order toindicate the cards the consumer is interested in canceling andreissuing. In this embodiment, each of the cancel and re-issue columns710, 720 includes a select all checkbox 730 that may be selected by theconsumer in order to mark each of the checkboxes in the respectivecolumn as selected. In one embodiment, the user interface 700 defaultsto selecting the cancel card checkbox for each of the listed financialcards, while in other embodiments the user interface 700 defaults toselecting none of the cancel card checkboxes for the listed financialcards.

In the particular embodiment of FIG. 7, the consumer has selected eachof the four cards 740A, 740B, 740C, and 740D for cancellation. Theconsumer has selected only the financial card 740A and 740C forreissuance. Thus, the card registry system 150, and more specificallythe account cancellation/reissuance module 260, will initiatecancellation of each of the listed financial cards 740, and willadditionally initiate reissuance of financial cards 740A and 740C. Inthe embodiment of FIG. 7, the consumer confirms the cancellation andreissuance instructions that are indicated by selection of appropriatecheckboxes in columns 710, 720, by selecting the cancel my cards button740. In response to selecting button 740, the card registry systeminitiates cancellation and reissuance of the financial cards asindicated by the consumer in user interface 700, for example.

As noted above, the steps taken in initiating cancellation andreissuance of financial cards may vary between different consumers, cardissuers, and embodiments of the card registry system 150. For example,in one embodiment the account cancellation/reissuance module 260 mayautomatically send electronic cancellation and reissuance requests tothe card issuers of the respective credit cards that have been selectedfor cancellation and reissue. In another embodiment, a customer servicerepresentative may receive a report indicating one or more financialcards that the consumer would like to cancel, and zero or more cardsthat the consumer would like to be reissued. For example, in response tothe consumer selecting the button 740 such a report may be generated andprovided to a customer service representative in order to allow thecustomer service representative to initiate the indicated cancellationsand reissuances by contacting the corresponding financial card issuers,such as by telephone, fax, e-mail, or any other suitable communicationwith the respective card issuers.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating one embodiment of a method ofcanceling financial cards of a consumer. The blocks of FIG. 8 may beperformed by the card registry system 150, for example, or any othersuitable computing device. Depending on the embodiment, the method ofFIG. 8 may include fewer or additional blocks and blocks may beperformed in a different order than is illustrated.

Beginning in block 810, the card registry system 150 receives a requestfrom a consumer to cancel one or more financial cards. In oneembodiment, the consumer is already registered with another serviceoffered by the card registry provider. For example, the consumer may beenrolled in a credit monitoring service that is provided by the providerof the card registry service. In another embodiment, the consumer maynot be enrolled in another service offered by the card registryprovider, and may be required to enroll in such a service in block 810,or provide sufficient identification and authorization information tothe card registry system 150 in order to allow the card registry system152 access the consumer's credit file.

Next, in block 820 the credit file of the consumer is accessed andcredit cards associated with the consumer are identified on the creditfile. The information regarding the identified credit cards may beextracted and stored in a card registry account for the consumer. In oneembodiment, the extraction of credit card information from a credit fileof the consumer occurs in response to the consumer indicating theirdesire to cancel one or more financial cards. In another embodiment, theidentification of credit card information in a credit file is performedprior to receiving an indication from the consumer of a desire to cancelone or more financial cards, such as part of a normal credit monitoringservice.

Next, in block 830 cancellation of one or more of the credit cardsidentified in the consumer credit file is initiated. As discussed above,the consumer may be given an opportunity to select which cards of theidentified credit cards should be canceled, such as via a web accessibleuser interface or a telephone call with a customer servicerepresentative. Additionally, the consumer may be provided anopportunity to select one or more of the credit cards for reissuanceafter the respective credit cards are canceled. In one embodiment, thecard registry system 150 automates the cancellation and reissuanceprocess by communicating directly with the corresponding card issuers.

In the embodiments described above with reference to FIGS. 6-8, forexample, the identification and cancellation of multiple credit cardsassociates with a consumer may be quickly and accurately performed.Additionally, the consumer is not required to locate credit cardinformation in their personal files in order to initiate cancellation oftheir credit cards.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating another embodiment of a method ofcanceling financial cards of a consumer. The blocks of FIG. 9 may beperformed by the card registry system 150, for example, or any othersuitable computing device. Depending on embodiment, the method of FIG. 9may include fewer or additional blocks and blocks may be performed in adifferent order than is illustrated.

Beginning in block 910, the card registry system 150 receives a requestfrom a consumer to cancel one or more financial cards. As noted above,the request may come from a consumer that is already enrolled in afinancial service offered by the same entity that controls the cardregistry system 150, or the request may be received from a consumer thatis not enrolled in such a service.

Next, in block 920 a credit file of the consumer is accessed and one ormore credit card accounts, and possibly other types of accounts, areidentified in the credit file.

In block 930, the identified credit card accounts are displayed to theconsumer, such as in a web accessible user interface. In otherembodiments, the located accounts may be displayed to a customer servicerepresentative that is speaking to the consumer on the phone, forexample.

Continuing to block 940, the card registry system 150 optionallyreceives information regarding additional consumer accounts, such asdebit accounts, store loyalty accounts, ATM accounts, or any otheraccount that the consumer may be interested in canceling. Informationregarding the additional consumer accounts may be received via a webaccessible user interface, for example, or may be entered into astandalone software application by a customer service representative orby the consumer.

In block 950, the card registry system 150 receives indications from theconsumer of accounts to cancel and reissue. For example, the user mayselect one or more of the identified and/or manually added financialcards for cancellation via a web accessible user interface (see, e.g.,FIG. 7). Additionally, the user may also indicate which of the accountsselected for cancellation should be reissued to the consumer.

Next, in block 960, the card registry system 150 initiates cancellationof the selected accounts. As noted above, cancellation may be initiatedin various manners, such as electronically by a communication sent fromthe card registry system 150 to respective issuers, phone, fax, ore-mail communications between a customer service representative and therespective card issuers, or any other suitable method of communicating acancellation request to the respective issuers.

In block 970 the card registry system 150 requests reissuance ofconsumer selected credit cards, if any. As noted above, the consumer maywish to have one or more of his/her soon-to-be-canceled credit cardsimmediately reissued. Thus, the card registry system 150 may automatethe process of requesting reissuance of financial cards. Issuance ofcredit cards or other financial cards may be initiated in variousmanners, such as electronically by a communication sent from the cardregistry system 150 to respective issuers, phone, fax, or e-mailcommunications between a customer service representative and therespective card issuers, or any other suitable method of communicating areissuance request to the respective issuers.

In block 980, the card registry system provides notification to theconsumer of the status of the selected cancellation and reissuancerequests. In one embodiment, the card registry system 150 provides asubstantially real-time indication to the consumer of the status of theconsumer's cancellation and reissuance requests, such as via a webinterface that is provided to the consumer with a few seconds to a fewminutes after the consumer authorizes the cancellation of the cards. Thetime required for cancellation and reissuance of financial cards mayvary depending on several factors, including the respective card issuer,the time of day the cancellation or reissuance request is received, thetype of financial card, and/or the manner in which the cancellation orreissuance request is transmitted to the respective issuer. Thus, in oneembodiment of the card registry system 150 provides periodic updates,such as every 10 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes, hour, day, or othertime, to the consumer with updated information on each of thecancellation and reissuance requests. The notification may be providedin any suitable format, such as via a user interface of a creditmonitoring website or card registry website, e-mail, text message,voicemail, or regular mail, for example.

The foregoing description details certain embodiments of the invention.It will be appreciated, however, that no matter how detailed theforegoing appears in text, the invention can be practiced in many ways.As is also stated above, it should be noted that the use of particularterminology when describing certain features or aspects of the inventionshould not be taken to imply that the terminology is being re-definedherein to be restricted to including any specific characteristics of thefeatures or aspects of the invention with which that terminology isassociated. The scope of the invention should therefore be construed inaccordance with the appended claims and any equivalents thereof.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computerized method comprising: automaticallyaccessing personal information of a user including indications of one ormore accounts of the user; identifying the one or more accounts based onan assessment of the accessed personal information; identifying a firstsubset of the accounts each associated with a first characteristicindicative of accounts that do not require cancellation; identifying asecond subset of the accounts each associated with a secondcharacteristic indicative of accounts that require cancellation; and foreach of the second subset of accounts: determining a contact address ofan entity originating the at account; and electronically transmitting tothe contact address a request for cancellation of the account for theuser with the entity originating the account.
 2. The computerized methodof claim 1, wherein the one or more accounts comprises at least one of:an account associated with a credit card or a debit card.
 3. Thecomputerized method of claim 1, wherein automatically accessing personalinformation is based on at least one of: the entity originating theaccount, an account number, a name of a user, an authorization code forthe one or more accounts, or contact information for the entity.
 4. Thecomputerized method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:transmitting information to the user with the accessed personalinformation regarding each of the one or more accounts; and receivinginput from the user, the input indicating a selection of at least one ofthe one or more accounts, wherein the transmitted information to theuser with the accessed information comprises a user interface with thesecond subset of the accounts initially selected and providing an optionfor the user to unselect one or more of the second subset of theaccounts.
 5. The computerized method of claim 4, wherein the input fromthe user is received by text message.
 6. The computerized method ofclaim 4, wherein the transmitted information to the user is transmittedvia one or more electronic communication networks.
 7. The computerizedmethod of claim 1, wherein electronically transmitting to the contactaddress the request for cancellation of the account for the user withthe entity originating the account comprises transmitting an electroniccommunication to the entity originating the account instructions thatare sufficient to initiate cancellation of the account.
 8. Thecomputerized method of claim 1, wherein identifying the one or moreaccounts based on the assessment of the accessed personal informationcomprises identifying the one or more accounts based on one or morerules for identifying the one or more accounts.
 9. The computerizedmethod of claim 8, wherein the one or more rules are received by theuser.
 10. The computerized method of claim 1, wherein the request forcancellation is transmitted to respective FTP addresses, IP addresses,or email addresses of the entity originating the at least one of the oneor more accounts.
 11. A system comprising: one or more processorsconfigured to: automatically access financial information of a userincluding indications of one or more accounts of the user; identify theone or more accounts based on an assessment of the accessed financialinformation; identifying a first subset of the accounts each associatedwith a first characteristic indicative of accounts that do not requirecancellation; identifying a second subset of the accounts eachassociated with a second characteristic indicative of accounts thatrequire cancellation; and for each of the second subset of accounts:determine a contact address of an entity originating the at account; andelectronically transmit to the contact address a request forcancellation of the account for the user with the entity originating theaccount.
 12. The system of claim 11, wherein the one or more accountscomprises at least one of: an account associated with a credit card or adebit card.
 13. The system of claim 11, wherein automatically accessingfinancial information is based on at least one of: the entityoriginating the account, an account number, a name of a user, anauthorization code for the one or more accounts, or contact informationfor the entity.
 14. The system of claim 11, wherein the request forcancellation is transmitted to respective FTP addresses, IP addresses,or email addresses of the entity originating the at least one of the oneor more accounts.
 15. A non-transitory computer storage medium storingcomputer-executable instructions that, when executed by a processor,cause the processor to perform the following method: automaticallyaccessing information of a user including indications of one or moreaccounts of the user; identifying the one or more accounts based on anassessment of the accessed information; identifying a first subset ofthe accounts each associated with a first characteristic indicative ofaccounts that do not require cancellation; identifying a second subsetof the accounts each associated with a second characteristic indicativeof accounts that require cancellation; and for each of the second subsetof accounts: determining a contact address of an entity originating theaccount; and electronically transmitting to the contact address arequest for cancellation of the account for the user with the entityoriginating the account.
 16. The non-transitory computer storage mediumof claim 15, wherein the method further comprises: transmittinginformation to the user with the accessed information regarding each ofthe one or more accounts; and receiving input from the user, the inputindicating a selection of at least one of the one or more accounts,wherein the transmitted information to the user with the accessedinformation comprises a user interface with the second subset of theaccounts initially selected and providing an option for the user tounselect one or more of the second subset of the accounts.
 17. Thenon-transitory computer storage medium of claim 16, wherein the inputfrom the user is received by text message.
 18. The non-transitorycomputer storage medium of claim 16, wherein the transmitted informationto the user is transmitted via one or more electronic communicationnetworks.
 19. The non-transitory computer storage medium of claim 15,wherein identifying the one or more accounts based on the assessment ofthe accessed information comprises identifying the one or more accountsbased on one or more rules for identifying the one or more accounts. 20.The non-transitory computer storage medium of claim 19, wherein the oneor more rules are received by the user.